A Multi-Fandom Series of The 1960's

Strong Opinions and Explicit Content: When no one has anything good to say of Barnabas Collins, he’ll say it himself.

I’d like to give some focus to all of the glowing reviews for “Margaret Josette Dupres” every couple of days, just to have something blessed to contemplate and show my appreciation.

But first let’s look at one delightful oddity and a couple reviews that have no bearing on constructiveness. It truly sickens me that anyone who might be remotely concerned about Barnabas Colllins’ character for his own pleasure and happiness would post such thankless and thoughtless rot.

This means I deduce: 1) This is someone who is used to being unhelpful and opinionated, 2) Is intentionally being rude for no good reason, and 3) has no legitimate purpose in giving me a hard time.

Sorry, “guest”. I suppose you might have gotten me to vaguely believe these words had 80 glowing reviews not gotten in AHEAD of your sour ones. For the very first chapter I applaud the ability of Osheen Nevoy who is a master artist and understands both detail and the depth of characters. I had NEVER seen Barnabas Collins written in first person except in some poetry on occasion… and he sure as Hell wasn’t erupting with joy to finally have what he always wanted in those.

Osheen was impressed and said it did sound like him. It took me a while to realize how correct she was and to see how his character had truly possessed me to write his words. (After all the “signs” for The Pit of Ultimate Dark Shadows, really, couldn’t there be something more going on here?)

So for this sour reviewer there is a claim that I express more than is comfortable for readers. By whose standards? Did you see the rating? M = Mature, which you are not. My temper may go out of bounds at times but I have more than enough reason by now for it to do so. Barnabas nor Maggie, nor Wadsworth nor Sam Evans have ever let a vulgar word escape their pens. Those vulgar words that are NOT in this novel are usually in other material of this kind. Examples:

cock, tits, boobies, dick, fuck, shit, cum, cunt, etc.

You want that? You can get it in a LOT of places. My first draft of The Wedding Night (2nd chapter) was read by a heavy explorer of porn and she said it was NOTHING like she’d ever seen. (Neither Barnabas Collins nor Josette Dupres, whether reincarnated or otherwise, would express their love life using words as such were they to be so bold.)

Next we read:

“And what’s with the last line of this chapter? *whispering” Express yourself, don’t repress yourself…

Is that a character speaking or you giving advice to your readers? If you are a sex phone operator or therapist, this is not the appropriate place for such comments.”

Uh-huh… Again, didn’t see the comments by the other reviewers who were enjoying all of it and requesting more, nor the need to encourage the shyer type of readers. The SHY reviewers are VERY often the ones appreciating the darn thing. When it comes to Dark Shadows usual readers, and fans of this pairing especially, that was a fun way of encouraging them. There is a line below the end of the chapter and my author’s notes are often in italics.

“Weird. Dark Shadows was never about sex. And Maggie wasn’t Josette.”

Again, who is this? Not doing one’s homework, are we? What? Josette’s ghost just randomly pops out of Maggie later in the series for no reason at all? Maggie gets spacey about the earrings and dumps Joe Haskell because? Why was K.L.S. urged to come back and reprise her role? Must we wonder about things like this?

The reason no one wrote this story before is because they weren’t as complex as I am and often they were bullied by the very harsh and bossy type of Julia/Barnabas (or Angelique/Barnabas) fans I’ve researched and investigated for years. This is why I have a lot of ire towards these types. I’ve seen what they’ve done to everyone else and I won’t tolerate it. (Not to mention I think Julia Hoffman is kick-ass and deserves better treatment than pity after so many decades.)

Again I must be grateful for Tim Burton’s 2012 film. The pissier DS fans have been so busy with harping on that thing they never saw what I was doing and didn’t have a chance to attack me like they did people who came before me, as well as almost everyone going keyboard-less and doing nothing but sharing photos for the most part. (I claim no conspiracy is going on with the encouragement to keyboard-less-ness, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was something sinister halting our ability to fully communicate with each other.)

Now that we’ve eliminated the rude guest reviewer who did nothing helpful but prove my initial expectations, we move on to the happy oddity. Mmmm… ^_^

“I have, with abaiteadely furry, read through this story The goocrux parings that you present are invoke feelings of boaconic insecurities that manifests through the characters modgone tones. Well done, I say! Keep up the good work and keep sending good yonies! It is with great euneirophrenia that wait for the next chapter. I have been flat out like a lizard drinking and need to take time from my hellacious schedule to check out you pod casts. I anticipate that they will leave me feeling frubie.”

Part of this makes me look down at my own keyboard to see where this pleasant reviewer may have made some typewritten mis-steps. I have accepted it as absolute joy-unbound to the point where words were uncertain. I take it like Gomez Addams,

“I’m not sure I understand exactly, but it’s wonderful!” ^_^

My other ideal is this is a college lass who just stowed her books away to enjoy her Summer Break. My deduction is one of the books she studied was James Joyce’s “Finnegan’s Wake”. I have managed to get through quite a bit of that book and enjoyed it thoroughly. The pictures of what was going on came into my mind and I’m not sure how but my now-husband was in his 4th year at the university and couldn’t comprehend how I made sense of it at the time. I must confess my DS + other fandom studies means my Joyce understanding is rather rusty. But I do recognize it.

(I’m just praying this is not a pal of mine who had a stroke and disappeared from his email account in the last few months. The word “frubie” reminds me a lot of him.)

As for the above images? Yes, Nabokov is an inspiration and so is Lolita which I find fitting. The difference is “Margaret Josette Dupres” is consensual while Lolita is not. Still, Barnabas Collins has been arrogant, cruel, and monstrous. Perhaps in different ways than Humbert Humbert but the pieces fit. “The Whom of Many” chapter was very inspired by both Nabokov and Humbert’s tones in description. In “Margaret Josette Dupres” Barnabas Collins has every right to be a bit smug sometimes.

If you were treated as he’s been in all of that fanfiction? Tossed about and abused and his character screamed at by reviewers who shake their fists at the man and actually hate him… well, wouldn’t you like to find someone to speak in first person for you and tell them what you thought of all of that?

Sometimes I wince at Barnabas Collins for picking me to do it.

Then I compare our lives, look at him and say, “Of course. I don’t blame you, Old Man. After all that I’ve seen? You deserve it.” ^_^

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4 thoughts on “Strong Opinions and Explicit Content: When no one has anything good to say of Barnabas Collins, he’ll say it himself.”

Hi there! I’m not quite finished sprucing my account page, but I’m here 🙂 So the guest who wrote that Dark Shadows was never about sex…there was sexuality going on in the series, especially with the love triangle, square (if you want to count Jeremiah and Josette’s love spell) and Bramwell and Catherine in the lottery storyline (I know it’s unrelated to Barnabas, but still, you know). Seriously, why would anyone hate Barnabas Collins? I know he’s not a saint, but he was transformed from the curse and Angelique turning the wheels of events in his life, especially with bringing Jeremiah and Josette together and, of course, the dreaded vampire curse. Hmm. Sometimes reviewers just need to realize that a story is just a story, a character is a character, and fiction IS in fact, fiction. Take care!

Hey! You made it! I hope you get the hang of it. It took me a while but then I finally chose a free template that was right for me. Thank you for this response! But yeah, never about sex??? I must say channeling these towns people… I never got so hot & bothered by screen characters! And I was embarrassed to write “The Wedding Night” last year! So I’m not sure if that person came from youtube, facebook or what, but on all counts there was plenty of warning in the summary and rating and how I posted it. Even the end of “The Wedding Day” warns it’s going down that road. So s/he was being rude. It’s hard enough sharing such work with people. Perhaps putting in more descriptions of scenery or clothing; That would be actual critiquing.

Dark Shadows was never about sex? Ever see Quentin Collins for the love of a full moon? *wink*

Oh, but yes! Many people do hate Barnabas. I saw that combing all those old stories for years and then I saw newer ones and in the midst of both I was like, “Huh? Who is this? It doesn’t sound like Barnabas… it sounds more like Jughead trying to be Barnabas.”

And then the reviews! I read all of these mean reviews, not toward the writers, but toward Barnabas, where people go on about how stupid he is. They use a lot of DS characters to pummel out their aggression like a boxing match. That’s why people who wanted my work mostly gave up on fanfiction.net and I had to go on a wild google hunt. Scary, eh?

I don’t know why or how folks could hate Barnabas either. Sure, he wasn’t behaving so “nice” in 1967, and I didn’t like him much then, but I didn’t hate him, no indeed not. I knew there must be a reason for all his anger and pain and kept watching him to see why. I wanted to get to know him, understand him…so I did, (and am now on the Leviathan episodes) and how he has grown and changed. He is a good man who has been a victim of circumstances and is doing all he can to find love, give love, help others, protect those he loves…he is an inspiration. He shows there is always hope to become the best we can be, even under extreme circumstances.

DAMN straight! Either way? It’s entertainment, if someone doesn’t like it? Go away, bozons! Seriously! And I was just sitting there watching DS with my anhedonia going, “What HAPPENED to you, Barnabas? What HAPPENED?” and then we get to 1795 and I finally understand, “Ohhhh, THAT’S what happened… okay, NOW I understand.” (I express this a lot in my “How Soon Is Now?” podcast, btw.)

I truly believe people who are just blindly taking DS at face-value and never read one classic novel or watched a single classic movie? That’s why they don’t get this. And I can’t figure out how any of them found their way to the internet. What a waste. They should just ease back into Mister Rogers, Sesame Street, Kipper, Spot, Paddington Bear, Wind In The Willows, Once Upon A Hamster, Maisy and chill-out.

Complexity is too much for these people. They need to start from the beginning, like we did. ❤